30 facts about friends behind the scenes and more – Us Weekly

Friends officially turns 30 years old. The groundbreaking series – if you’re not familiar with it – was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman and starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc AND David Schwimmer as five twenty-something buddies in New York. Now, thirty years after the pilot episode aired, these 30 behind-the-scenes facts show why he’s more beloved than ever. Keep scrolling for more.

1. The program was almost called Insomnia Cafe, Friends Like Us, across the hall AND Six out of one before the creators decided that Friends was the best option.
2. Producers initially wanted Monica (Cox) and Joey (LeBlanc) to be the show’s main couple, and even considered it in season three of “The One With The Flashback.” In this episode, we also found out what fans think about the relationships of Rachel (Aniston) and Chandler (Perry), Monica and Chandler, and Phoebe (Kudrow) and Ross (Schwimmer).
3. Monica and Chandler’s reunion in the season four finale was originally written as a one-off, but after overwhelming fan reaction, producers decided to make their relationship permanent.

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4. The graphics in Central Perk changed every three episodes and often reflected the time of year in which the episodes took place.
5. Actress Anitia Barone was originally cast as Ross Geller’s ex-wife Carol Willick, but was replaced by Jane Sibbett after one episode.
   

6. Emily Waltham (Helen Baxendale) was originally scheduled to appear in more episodes of the fifth season, but the actress’s actual pregnancy made it difficult for her to leave England; Emily was removed from the show much sooner than planned.
7. The main reason Mike Hannigan (Paul Rudd) and Phoebe stayed together was because the cast and crew wanted to keep Rudd on the show.
8. James Michael Tyler was cast as Gunther because he was the only extra on set who knew how to use a coffee machine.
9. After Friends ended its final season, each of the six main cast members was given a piece of the sidewalk in front of Central Perk.
10. Like Monica Geller, Cox is obsessed with cleaning and was often spotted organizing wardrobes for cast members.
    

11. Aniston, Cox, Kudrow, LeBlanc, Perry and Schwimmer appeared in every episode.
12. Carol and Susan’s wedding was the first-ever wedding between two women to be shown on network television, and NBC was so concerned about viewer reaction that it hired telephone operators to receive what they expected to be a large number of hate calls. They only received 11.
13. Schwimmer hated working with Marcel the Monkey so much in the first season that producers removed the primate from the series.
14. Phoebe and Chandler were originally intended to play supporting roles.
15. Throughout the series, Chandler had the least romantic relationships.

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16. Although each episode was 22 minutes long, they took approximately 5 hours to film. All episodes were filmed in front of a live studio audience.
17. Ross and Rachel have the same initials, “RG”.
18. None of the three main characters gives birth to a child in the so-called “traditional” way. Monica adopts, Rachel is a single mother, and Phoebe is a surrogate mother for her brother Frank (Giovanni Ribisi) and his wife Alice (Debra Jo Rupp).
19. The late Perry was the youngest cast member.
    

20. Monica and Phoebe are the only characters who have never kissed.
21. The first line of the show: “There’s nothing to talk about. He’s just some guy I work with,” Monica said, and the last sentence was, “Sure. Where?” – Chandler said.
22. Rachel’s last name is spelled differently throughout the series. Sometimes it’s green and other times it’s green.
23. Monica’s name appears in only eight episode titles, the fewest of the six friends. Rachel’s name appeared most often – 27.
24. Chandler is the only friend who does not have any siblings.
    

25. Rachel is the only friend who has kissed all her other friends (although her kiss with Chandler occurred in a dream and her kiss with Monica was never shown).
26. Ross is the only main cast member who is never seen living in Monica’s apartment.

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27. Joey is the only character not to get married in the series. He is also the only character who does not end up with someone until the 2004 finale.
28. Apart from the series finale in season 10, seasons 2 and 6 are the only seasons that do not end on a cliffhanger regarding Ross and Rachel’s relationship.
29. Every character was unemployed at some point.
30. Finally, the word “friends” was said 302 times during the show.